Is it quitting smoking? Losing weight? Giving up ice cream? Starting an exercise program? What is your new year's resolution? We all want to improve but the lack of results can be frustrating. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." This was apparently penned in 1855 by Henry G. Bohn. If you are like me, the list of things in your life that need improving is rather daunting and yet every year we try again to improve. How can we make lasting change? How do we keep our latest resolution from adding to the cobblestones on the road to failure?
You may have noticed that this is not being posted on January 1st. My resolution this year is to update my blog once a month. What can I say? At least it is not January 31st. The first key to lasting change is to pick a reasonable and achievable goal. Planning to exercise every single day for an hour would be ideal for all of us....but achievable for almost none. Make sure there is enough flexibility to achieve the desired outcome. I have resolved in the past to not eat any ice cream. Those resolutions clearly failed but I found a way that works for me (see my post "Earning My Ice Cream"). It is also important to tackle our shortcomings one step at a time. Choose just one and work on it first (see "Make Every Step Count"). Take a bite out of it and chew it one day or week or month at a time. There are many people who need to lose fifty pounds to be healthy. That is a big number and seems so unattainable that most will not even try. Breaking down the goal helps to realize how to achieve it. Over a year, losing one pound a week will result in a fifty pound weight loss. That is even giving you two weeks of no weight loss! To lose one pound a week requires a 500 calorie change each and every day. That means eating less or exercising more but the difference needs to be 500 calories. Setting the goal to lose fifty pounds is admirable but it is doomed to failure if one does not start each and every day with, "How can I get to get rid of 500 calories today?"
Broadcasting your resolution is another way to aid in your success. Tell everyone around you what you are doing. Yes, it is scary but it holds us accountable. Not being willing to share your resolutions is the first sign of failure. In fact, it is planning to fail before you even begin. Instead of shaking in fear that you might disappoint a loved one, use them for support. They will encourage you, be more patient with you and help you. In fact, finding a resolutions that can be done with a partner will increase your chance of success (see "The Buddy System"). I am grateful to my patients who have said, "We miss reading your blog." It has given me the encouragement to make the time to start writing again.
Ultimately, if lasting change is going to be implemented, the resolutions have to be meaningful enough to change who we are. The resolution must invoke a revolution. Temporary change will not suffice. We need make the leap of faith from saying, "I want to quit smoking," to "I am a nonsmoker," or from "I want to exercise more" to looking in the mirror and affirming, "I am an exerciser." For me, it is changing my mindset from being a doctor that occasionally writes in a blog to being "A blogger." This does not happen over night and requires persistence. Failure will happen; we will stumble and fall. Falling is not failing. Quitting is failing. Those on the road to success have one thing in common, they have all gotten up after having fallen and continued the race.
